Public Gaming International Gaming July/August 2021

47 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2021 integrated unified commerce environments from in-store and online touchpoints through to mobile devices. The platform is enriched by innovative services such as AI-based dynamic pricing, personalization, fraud detection, and mobile applications. Virginia Lottery and IWG First to Launch Linked Progressive Jackpot e-Instants Washington state Gov. signs sports betting compacts with 15 tribal casinos Connecticut Lottery Lucky for Life ® draw game expands from two drawings per week to seven drawings per week Atlas Experiences and Luke Combs Exclusively Collaborate to Create a $1,000,000 Cash Concert Second- Chance Lottery Promotion Texas Lottery completes its website re-design with transition to texaslottery.com , replacing its txlottery.org domain. scratching the surface for how data can inform and guide our game development, messaging, promotions, strategies and decision-making. What is an example of a data-driven insight that we wouldn’t know from common- sense, anecdotal observation and focus groups? M. Malul: Let me give you a simple example from tests we have done on Draw Games players and especially during jackpot runs, and this is consistent all o ver the world. We know from observation that the motivations of draw-game players are different from Instant game players. Data analytics just give us more insight into how they differ, and even amongst Draw Games players there are sub groups with different purchase motiva- tions. We look at tens of thousands of plays combined with different promotion types and the data show, for instance, that the draw game player responds much more positively to certain kinds of upsells than others. Let’s say you want to incent the player to increase their purchase of Powerball during a jackpot. The regular bonuses of online would usually call for “Deposit/Pay $10 and get a matchup of 100% bonus”. However, you could also say “Increase your purchase from five tickets to ten tickets and pay for only seven.” This first bonus is objectively a better value, but the draw game player is more likely to respond to the second offer of paying only for seven tickets because it resonates with what they want to do here and now when they come to purchase a ticket during a jackpot run. Observing and analyzing these data, and correlating it with other data-points and matrices that describe player behaviour, we can infer much about the underlying psychology of why people act the way they do, why certain play-styles will respond more positively to one kind of message over another, and those inferences in turn guide ongoing and deeper analyses of the data. The point is that data-analytics tells us what works and what does not. Without that, we are just guessing based on relatively small test groups or what players tell us in surveys. The data do not tell us the “why”, just the “what”. But then we compile the data and add layers of analyses and modeling to derive a very clear roadmap of how to build games and promotional packages that appeal to all the different play-styles. Data also assist to significantly optimize marketing budgets for both Acquisition of Players as well as their Retention because you can spend your dollars attracting players from sources which convert better and/or bring in players with a higher lifetime value. Data analytics also helps to ensure that your budget of promo dollars is spent where it needs to be and not spread in a sub-optimal way across unproductive groups. The next phase in evolution will be the combination fo Predictive Analitics and Real-Time decisions. We are already using Predictive modeling and continue to refine them in order to be able to predict LTV within just a few days after sign up, potential churn before it happens, likelihood to become VIP players and more. These models enable enormous efficiencies and much more relevant player engagement strategies. However, the world is moving towards real-time. That means that implemented messaging or treatment should take place as close as possible, and prefferabbly within the interaction with a player. For example, today we already enable presenting different marketing banenrs and promotiosn to different players in real-time based on their segment and specific behaviour which proves itself to be most effective. But this can be gratelly improved. For example, if we connect predictive LTV data back into acquisition, we can refine digital campaigns as they go and pay less or more with accordance to the quality of the sourcse. We could also let the Portal or Mobile App be aware in real-time what games the player is more likely to play based on their segment so that the channel can repurpose the way it presents and suggests games recommendations to the players. There are many other such use cases and some of them are already in play with our customers, showing significant impact. To augment all the great technical solutions, games studio and the wide range of services we provide our customers, we are just about to launch NeoCube, a Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse that integrates the performance metrics of all our customers with KPI’s that enable them to see op- portunities for growth, for implementing changes that will shore up weaknesses, leverage strengths, and enhance results. Our customers will be able to see how they are performing against various iLottery KPIs and utilize a very advanced BI engine to analyze and interpret the metrics. The solution uses aggregated data and not player-specific data, which is quite frankly not needed in big-data initiatives. It’s the correlations between multiple data-points that reveal the pathways to improvement. What kinds of promotions and messaging work best with which games? Who has the best conversion rates during jackpot runs, and what strategies are being applied to achieve those results? And this is just the beginning as we will add more and better modeling tools to help our customers gain more and deeper insights into their operations. What are our expectations as Covid hopefully unwinds? M. Malul: I think we are all looking forward to a year of getting back to normal. Without knowing what the future holds, we look forward to seeing everyone at PGRI Nashville and other industry events, and continuing to serve the industry as it progresses into the digital era. n Embracing the New World of Omni-Gaming from page 25